Apple New "Mastered for iTunes" render a high quality AAC Audio files

Apple has quietly launched Mastered for iTunes, a push to deliver music "exactly as the artists and sound engineers intend it to be heard",  the company maintains that iTunes Plus 256kbps AAC files are still sufficient rather than lossless. In an updated guide to sound engineers and others involved in producing music for digital distribution, Apple outlines the new "Master for iTunes droplet" which can be used to create high-quality iTunes Plus files from AIFF or WAVE masters.

The Droplet creates an AAC audio file from an AIFF or WAVE source file by first generating a CAF (Core Audio File) rendered with an iTunes sound check profile applied to the file. If the sample rate of the source file is greater than 44.1 kHz, it is downsampled to 44.1 kHz using our mastering-quality SRC. Next, it uses this newly rendered CAF to render a high quality AAC audio file. Once the final AAC audio file is generated, the intermediary CAF is deleted"Apple Mastered for iTunes guide